A Break for Inspiration

My sister says I shouldn't post my vacation plans online because of a chance of burglary. But, see, I don't actually have a home to rob. Or apartment. So if anyone somehow manages to burgle me while I'm away it might actually make me feel impressed that they found someplace to break into. Hopefully they'll leave me a note and let me know where that home is so I might live there.

So here are my vacation plans. I spend 9 days in Paris. My itinerary includes: jazz, opera, art, wine, cheese, pastry, cafes, sketching, books, flea markets, Van Gogh, Manet, & some Hemingway. My itinerary does NOT include: the eiffel tower, the Mona Lisa, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, waiting in lines, saying dull ignorant things loudly in English, staring at maps, buying chotchkies and general crap.

It will be a wonderful break from a drab year of searching for jobs, making ends meet, crashing with family, and trying to find the peace of mind to paint pictures.

Au revoir!

All the Things I Own Except a Home

This a new graphite sketch for a painting I am planning- something I have been working on for a while to get the right look. Originally it was set in a desert, then a marsh, and then I put it in a forest, and then it took many bike trips around state parks and other wooded areas to find the right forest setting for reference. I also had significantly more stuff including pots hanging on the trees, bookshelves, more boxes, etc. I didn't know what pose I wanted the figure in until a few weeks ago- but when I did it all finally started falling into place. I want the figure to be nude-- but not explicit. I want it to be ordinary with a person going about normal business- but she is not indoors in a safe and private space. She is outdoors where she is exposed and vulnerable. The pose was inspired by photograph I saw-- and I still need to find a model to recreate it and adjust it for the painting. I did this sketch to force myself to think things out more specifically. There is something about drawing out an idea that calls attention to even the most minute details in a way that photography and Photoshop never do. It is a way of becoming intimately familiar with every line and shadow. It keeps me from looking and thinking too quickly and ensures I know all of the potential pitfalls and attend to any issues. This painting will be called "All the Things I Own Except a Home" and will be 3x4 ft when complete. It is about not having a place to live or a place where one can relax, be themselves, and have time alone doing ordinary things. Or it is about trying to make a home in a place that is exposed and uncomfortable and not meant for a permanent sort of lifestyle. I need to do some color studies next to pin down the color- I am not sure if I'll make it very lush green or something more desaturated and toned down. Recently I took a look back at an older painting I did ages ago called "The Jungle" and might use that as a jumping off point for color, but with the figure less orange. Here is a an image of that painting:



"The Jungle" was one of the first paintings I did after I decided to leave the film industry. But while I was still in film school and starting to have doubts about being there, I took a photography class where I did a series of self-portraits. These eventually became the starting point for most of my paintings and most of what I still do is still rooted in them. The are called "Imposed Geometry" and mostly have to do with putting manmade elements and structures in a natural environment. But they also have to do with vulnerability and domesticity. Here are two that are particularly relevant:





The first one is in a destroyed adobe house in Malibu Creek State park. I had to wait for a quiet moment with no one passing by in order to strip down to a slip for the pose. The second one was taken in a park in Culver City. My favorite part is that you can see an oil derrick in the distance on the hill in the upper right corner. The oil derricks in that park inspired my Edge of the World series. But they were hard to use in photographs because they all had chain link fences around them.

Experiments in Graphite

I've been mostly drawing lately, partly because I have more ideas than I can keep up with and want to attend to as many as possible. Drawing is much faster and I can turn things around in a week rather than a few months. I was working mostly in charcoal which is very painterly and fluid. But I saw another artist working in graphite and liked his work so I thought I would give it a shot. Graphite is not very fluid and lends itself much more to messy cross-hatching and detail linework. It also does not produce a rich black and heavy layers of it turn more silver gray and catch the light (for better or for worse.) There is something magical about the silvery quality of graphite that I think can work in my drawings, but sometimes the gray quality seems to lack boldness.

I did this drawing above sometime last week, it is called "Roses" for now. It was my first experiment and so I did not really fuss over the subject matter. The figure is someone I met at an art show a few months back and asked to pose for me. Generally I am too shy to approach strangers and ask favors but I've made a resolution to overcome my shyness. My old mainstay of getting models from Craigslist is great when it works. But I never know who will respond and sometimes there are painting/drawing ideas I put off because of it.

The Bedroom Trees

I completed this drawing "The Bedroom Trees" recently after fussing over it on and off for a month. Most of my problems were technical and conceptual. I wasn't sure if it really made any sense, and then I also learned I am crap at perspective. The original idea was a bedroom with trees growing in it. I haven't drawn much with perspective or anything architectural in a long time-- probably not since college. But also figuring out how to draw large trees growing inside is hard to do because there isn't anything to reference. I realized quickly how hard it was to turn my idea into reality and had problems figuring out the logistics of how it would work in an image. You can see that where the tops of trees meet the ceiling is a bit non-specific-- that was me deciding to leave it ambiguous after several attempts to be more precise and have the space make sense. I think if I turned this into a painting, it would need many more studies-- but I'll probably leave it as a drawing for now.

The idea of it came from wanting to capture an uncomfortable living space-- a place that should be restful but things are coming in and overtaking it. It is also meant to be dreamlike and lonely, and the figure is everywhere but in actually in bed resting. I like to repeat figures to show different states of mind and sort of imply a progression of thoughts or mood.

The New Studio

I have been missing in action on the blog lately- partly due to procrastination, lack of reliable internet & free time, and general busy-ness. I was wrapped up in preparing for the Somerville Open Studios which meant I took a detour from my usual grand scale paintings to do more small scale landscapes. I planned to return to painting and start a new large series of pieces but instead I ended up having to move studios and contribute to another small show. So instead of new paintings to share, I have some images of my bigger and better studio space. The photo above is the entry space-- I liked how the light came in through the windows and hit the floor. Below is my studio space. I have not settled in yet. I am still figuring out storage and where to put things and eventually I will build walls to separate it from the larger space it is in so it will be more private.



The best part of the space is that it is over 3 times as large as my last space, better maintained, and with much higher ceilings. There are no trees growing out the roof... or faint odor of plumbing issues. I have about 250 square feet now. I had 80 before as illustrated below:



There was barely enough space to turn around or stand up and was probably better suited to a painter of miniatures. The new space costs more but it comes with better facilities, common areas, a rooftop deck, parking, community. I'm eager to get started on a new bunch of paintings & drawings. I'm in the process of planning them out now.

Also since I have been a bit behind on things I have not posted my latest big drawing (about 3x4 feet). Right now I call it "Nearby Distance" which still could change. It is another work where I try to play with mental and physical geography. The left half of the drawing is Los Angeles, the right have is the woods of New England. It is about how people can be connected even when physically apart. Even though the drawing rearranges geography and shows figures near each other- it implies an emotional distance between them that may be even more difficult to cross than the physical distance between the east & west coasts.



I'm also making more of an effort to include men in my paintings. I haven't included them very often for several reasons. Most of my paintings are a form self portraits that come from my own experiences. When I visualize things, I don't see men. It doesn't make sense in context with the ideas in my head. Substituting a man for a woman would change the meaning drastically and would raise a completely different set of issues than what I intend. When I really started painting heavily (beyond just college) I started with a series that explored vulnerability. It was ultimately about being alone in a big city... as a woman. For me the "woman" part went without saying, it was just a given since I am a woman.* Those paintings worked better with women since society sees them as "vulnerable." A man walks alone in the woods- so what. A woman does the same and she is told that is too dangerous. So swapping the figure with a man would change the meaning.

Even now that my paintings are not as much about vulnerability and have more mysterious narratives- it would still change the meaning to have a man. These days when I paint figures, the women often exist in their own internal worlds. With multiple women in one painting, I often see them as different aspects of the same person, even if their physical appearances are not the same. So including a man would feel like an intrusion of sorts. Or the painting would become more about a relationship between a man and a woman instead of a portrait of single person's internal world. Once it becomes about two characters I worry that a painting/drawing becomes even more narrative perhaps inches closer to illustration. However, I have decided to question my instinct to only use women and try to change things up without getting too far from my artistic voice. I This drawing is my first attempt, and I am working on some other ideas as well. I will probably also turn this drawing into a painting as well because I think it would be more successful in color.


*But I feel I don't need to explain that when I talk about my paintings I am now because people always ask why I paint women and I admit it is frustrating since I don't think it needs explaining.

Have some art while it snows...

I finished this drawing yesterday, tentatively called "Around." It is roughly 36x43 inches and drawn in charcoal, chalk and acrylic paint on rag paper. Because I painted part of it, it is kind of wrinkly and it was hard to get a good photo. I may try again when it is not icy and I have more patience, but this photo will do for now.

I like this drawing, but what I like most about it are little elements in it that show sparks of potential for future drawings. I got into the texture of the charcoal, and the mysterious quality that black and white images have since they don't need to be as specific as when in color. I like the background-- how in some areas it is fuzzy and unclear and has some magic in it. I also went darker in this one, and it feels very bold in person. (Partly because I painted the black areas with acrylic and went over them in charcoal to get a harder intensity.) I would like to explore some of these little things more with future drawings. I am probably going to stick with drawings for the next little bit while I work out some painting ideas and build canvases, so we'll see what happens.

Right now I am interested in repeating the same figure, and this drawing is along that line. I like having a repetition and showing a small journey by showing the same figure at different moments side by side. I am planning to do this more in depth, though sometimes I have other ideas along the way that I want to do too so it feels like I am moving slow and not accomplishing anything.

Also, I finished my new and better version of "The Birds Will be the First to Die."



I am using brighter colors now, because I don't see the point in being so faithful to reality since my scenes are meant to be worlds in their own right. This has a bright turquoise sky (thanks to Cobalt Teal!) but it looks different in person-- still bright but more solid somehow.

This idea was inspired by a report that the bird populations of the northeast are dropping, and that it is an ominous sign for humans. It's the sort of thing that makes me want to hide in my closet. But I don't. Instead I make beautiful horrifying paintings about it that makes people really really quiet when I explain it.

Here is the older version of this idea, which I absolutely hate. I tried to fix it and repaint it several times but sometimes starting over completely is the only remedy. It's much smaller, maybe 19 inches across (it's in an attic so I won't bother to measure it.) It also is a prime example of a crappy landscape. I'm not a natural landscape painter, and this is one mass of green that I couldn't conquer.



Now I'm going to go have a sandwich before I eat my keyboard, and finish writing a short story, and maybe iron a skirt for tomorrow.

Goodnight.

In the Forest

I finished this painting this week, tentatively called "In the Forest, in the Desert," (3ft by 4ft.) I've been told that is a bad title. So it might change. It is a hard one to name because I don't think it translates into words.

This is autobiographical (as always) and is a made up space with a desert on the left and northeastern woods on the right side knitted together into one space. I tried to make the landscapes different enough it was clear it was southwest meets northwest-- but not so different it looked like two different paintings. Ultimately I wanted to make a scene that took more than a brief glance to figure out.

I thought this one was done a month or two ago, but after staring at it for a while I decided some things were not working for me. I worked on some other pieces on the meantime which gave me some ideas for this one. In the end I nearly repainting the entire thing-- and repainted the figure on the right 3-4 times changing the color of her dress. It was gray, then yellow, then red. At the end I decided to make it black-- to create a rhythm with the black bird, foreground figure in black, and then a third piece of black. The red dress was too overpowering and disrupted the way a viewer should experience it. I had just painted the clothing on the figure and was about to repaint the reflection when a friend walked by and stopped me. She said the reflection should stay red. I didn't agree at the time but luckily decide to look at it for a few days. In the end, she was right, and the red reflection is just the right amount of red and adds a weirdness to the scene that I love. You can't plan everything.

Maybe I should call this painting "Nature" since I was reading a biography of Emerson while I worked on it.

Here is a detail of my favorite part:



Below is a previous painting I finished just before the holidays, "Two Coasts" (also 3ft by 4ft)



This is another one where I tried to knit east & west coast together but in a different more literal way-- with Los Angeles on the left and Boston on the right. I repeated the exact same figure but with a slightly different gaze on each.

I am exploring breaking the unity of space and time. I am thinking of having figures being repeated even more times to create a journey. I don't want to paint paintings that are a moment in time that could be captured as well or better with a camera.

When I work out the concept of a painting, I approach it more like an installation concept vs. a painting concept. Except most of my ideas are too impossible to ever make into an installation (like move New Mexico next to Vermont impossible.) I love that everything is possible in painting though.

I am currently reading "Collages" by Anais Nin. I love it. I'm reading it slowly to savor it since it is a short book and I will miss it when it is done. I recommend it for anyone who has lived in LA, or is an artist, or both.

Birds Over a Cornfield

This is my latest drawing done with charcoal, pastel and collage. It is 3 ft high & 4ft wide-- because I love big right now. It feels like you can almost walk into the drawing. It is a view of an area in Carlisle MA that I bike past-- one day I saw a flock of birds flying just over the top of the corn, circling around playfully. I tried to take pictures of the birds, but they were too quick. I think the birds I originally saw are chimney swifts-- but I'm not sure-- they wouldn't hold still so I am only judging by their general shape. The birds I put in aren't really swifts-- could not find good reference for a flock of swifts. But I thought larger birds would work better visually.

Here are details of the figure and house:





It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the birds are actually cut outs that I hand painted in acrylic for added texture. I shaded them lightly around the cut outs to give the appearance of shadow/movement so they stand out a little more. I think I will do more with collaged elements in future drawings, but subtly. I don't want to get carried away because ultimately I just love drawing itself without boundaries. I am in love with charcoal and found the process of collaging the birds here very boring-- but I like the finished effect.





More will come soon, I am behind in posting my work and am still churning out more things daily. The big drawings go especially fast and I love the immediate gratification-- so I am aiming to do one a week-- and I can still get quite a bit of painting done since the energy of drawing is carried into my painting. This new way of working is turning out to be very fluid and natural and I don't have as many "bad" art days.

I've also found that reading in my studio just before I paint is a great way to slow my mind down and get into a more patient creative mood. If I come rushing in fresh from doing emails and errands I am more likely to be flustered and lazy in my approach-- so reading adds a good buffer period. Plus I learn interesting things.

Currently I am reading a biography of Emerson (by Robert D. Richardson Jr.) and it is fascinating. I am determined to actually read some of Emerson's essays for the first time. I have always had difficulty with philosophy (I could read biography forever) but this particular biography is a great introduction and background to what I would like to ultimately understand. Currently I am at the portion where Emerson is writing "Nature." I really want to read it now-- the attention the biography gives it has set my mind to thinking-- especially when juxtaposed to what I am currently working on with art. I wrote a new artist statement yesterday, and it is already out of date after reading just a few short paragraphs of "Emerson: Mind on Fire" last night.

This is where my sister would roll my eyes and tell me I'm a nerd. But I would just remind her about her own bubbly excitement when discussing vascular dementia. (She's a doctor.) Runs in the family.

The Past and the Future

...My latest big drawing, probably my last one for a little bit because I am going to focus more on painting. I forgot the exact dimensions of this one-- I'm guessing it is about 3ft x 2 feet. Done with charcoal & acrylic gesso on rag paper. Another one with a mysterious meaning-- I don't like things to be clear. But the setting is on a cliff (Big Sur) overlooking the Pacific with one woman looking west, and one looking east. That is why I named it The Past and the Future-- sort of a bundle of themes running in my work these days-- geography, place in time, moodiness.... Pretty much autobiographical. I'm waiting for the kind people who pose for me to catch on that I am doing self portraits even though my image is not literally in the paintings. And I always want to turn things into "scenes" like stills from some bizarre movie. Perhaps that's whey I'll never be a straight portrait artist.



Here are some details:

A Little Bit Homesick

A new drawing, approximately 36x36 inches. I am still thinking up a title. The view is Runyon Canyon, Los Angeles. Drawing this made me homesick for LA-- it didn't help that I was listening Aimee Mann Bachelor No. 2-- music I associate with moving to LA. I am not sure what this drawing is a about-- for me the interest is the contrast of the two figures and the way the shadow falls, and the way the figure on the right's head is cropped off. There's no narrative for it, I just wanted to capture a certain conflicted feeling.

If I turn this into a painting I may crop this so it is more vertical. On a whim I added more BG on both sides in the drawing but I think it weakens the composition.

Here is a detail:



I have another drawing I am working on-- will post that later. Then I need more paper as I already burned through 5 yds of (somewhat) pricey rag paper. But I also need to do some oil painting and finish some of my in process pieces. I think I have a new perspective on my paintings after spending a while working with charcoal. We'll see what happens.

Big Big Drawings!

This is called "The Birds Will be the First to Die." I did a version of this idea a year (or more?) ago that is on my website. I don't like that version. I thought of fixing that painting but eventually decided to move on. However, living in a world where there are trees, I unexpectedly found I was able to solve my previous painting issue. I was able to get a wonderful model in an actual tree in the exact pose I wanted. Amazing what that does. I didn't have to "invent" anything which helps to make things work in an effortless way. I wasn't sure if I was going to actually turn this into a painting until I did the drawing, now I think that it has to be done. Here is a detail:



This was done with charcoal, black/gray/white pastel, black/white Conte crayon, pencil & acrylic gesso. It is definitely darker and moodier than the painting will be-- but I sort of like what happened so maybe that will creep in after all.

This painting was based on a brief report I heard about how bird populations in the North East are declining and it is a harbinger of what is to come for us non-birds. Birds are more vulnerable to environmental shifts, kind of a Canary-in-a-coalmine thing. I couldn't watch the full report because it scared the shit out of me. Instead I make paintings of reports like this, it keeps me sane.

Back on the Two Coasts painting, I have continued to work on it but went and did a study to work out the foliage detail. I need to simplify it and shape it a little more so it isn't a chaotic mess. Here it is:



I think I am going to put leaves framing the painting in the upper right & left hand corners. I thought I would test the idea in the drawing first. I'm still trying to find the right type of oak leaves to put in the upper right side-- some that are more curved than pointy. I went for a bike ride this week and could only find angular oak leaves. I saw some curvy oak leaves framing a scene in a Titian painting and I want to copy/steal/reference them... but now I can't figure out which painting I am remembering them being in. Aaaaahhhhh! But I bought the catalog for the Titian/Tintoretto/Veronese exhibit so I can refer back to the paintings and hopefully find it.

Current Paintings in Process...

I've been working on some more ambitious paintings lately. I thought that I would be further along than I am. Perhaps it is a lack of deadlines, or that I am bogged down by real life distractions (like trying to scrounge up some sort of income.) I think I actually paint more when I am employed full time. I know this is why I could never be a freelancer or small business owner-- I don't function with unpredictable schedules or high demand projects that compete for my attention. Initially I was going to start 5 large paintings, but now I'm focusing on 2 large paintings and 2 small. I'll probably start another large painting soon but after I get a handle on what I have already started.

My paintings are much more involved these days because I am making more detailed paintings and getting away from what I had been doing in the last few years (which had started to feel a bit formulaic.) I have been collecting and putting together my own reference images, often getting upwards of 30 images per painting, and 50+ layers in Photoshop as I collage them together. My themes are moving away from a desert feel and towards a distinct New England feel. That means there are more trees, and I struggle with trees.

I am also working to incorporate more figures/portraits. It is something I have always wanted to focus on more but somehow I moved away from it. Now I feel like I am learning how to paint faces all over again-- a bit rusty. I would love to paint figures like John Singer Sargent-- but I do not have the facility right now. I have this feeling that I will need to get a bunch of small canvases and do a portrait every day for a month for the purpose of practice and study. For now I started 2 small portraits with some promise of sucess-- but they are still overworked and not completely fresh and bold. I am not sure if they are done, but here are some images (not the greatest photos, but they'll do... until I finish the paintings.)





I think I need to do more of these, and I actually want to work on bigger canvases as I practice portraits. The close cropping puts more emphasis on composition and I would prefer to focus on the flesh itself without any needless restrictions.

Here is one of my large paintings in progress. I basically have the elements blocked out and am still moving things around and changing colors. I'm still a few stages away from doing fine details, and most of the color is brighter than it will be at the finish:



This pieces is called "Two Coasts" and is auto-biographical. Los Angeles is portrayed on the left side and Boston is on the right side. I want each side to feel like different worlds with different light-- and I'm still figuring out the balance so that it works together. It is 3x4 feet. Here are some close ups after I started working on the details of the figures. I blocked of portions of the painting in order to focus in on figures more (and not be tempted to keep messing with the background before solving issues I was avoiding....)





This is my other big one that is in process, "In a Forest in a Desert." It has a similar theme, with Southwestern mountains and deserts knit with east coast forests:





I am hoping to finish these pieces this month and move on to some new painting ideas. I am in the process of making preparatory studies for some new pieces, trying to work them out before I get too deep into them. Meanwhile I am hurriedly trying to squeeze in as many visits to the Titian, Tintoretto & Veronese exhibit at the MFA before it goes away-- it is the best exhibit I have seen! I went for the 2nd time yesterday and bought the catalog. I'm hoping to go a couple more times in the next week or so now that I have started reading the catalog and have more background information. Plus reproductions never hold a candle to the real things which I won't see again side by side like this.

My Plot to Take Over the World (With Art)

I haven't written in a while, but with good cause-- I've been in the studio working and not at a computer more than necessary. (My studio is internet free, which is kind of nice to be dis-connected and the old-fashioned type of "wireless" for most of the day.)

My open studio went very well and I made some cash. I then purchased a large quantity of art supplies for my upcoming paintings-- enough for 12 large scale paintings. I have been building and prepping canvases-- which I do in bulk all at once because I HATE IT. Really. Messy, time consuming, and at the end of the day I usually am sore as hell from pulling and yanking canvas tight or kneeling on the floor spreading oil ground. I prepare my canvases very meticulously because it is the base of everything and I cannot change it later so I must get it right from the start.

I don't like pre-prepared canvases. Why?

1. Gesso is crappy
2. They are not stretched well and usually have ripples
3. They are not archival
4. They are supremely expensive

I will use them occasionally for sketches, but only small canvases.

When I make my own canvases I:

1. Have control of the materials (deep stretchers, heavy canvas, sizing, oil ground)
2. Save money (I spent $300 for 12 canvases prepped to my needs whereas 12 pre-made canvases of the same size pre-prepped with non-archival gesso would cost over a grand.)
3. Don't have canvases that look machine made.

The only downside to making my own canvases is that it takes weeks and weeks (allowing for labor, drying time between stages.) I am a very fast and prolific artist generally-- and the canvas prepping is what slows me down. I would probably do double or triple the large scale paintings if I didn't have to spend a month here and there wrapped up in canvas prep.

I have been thinking lately how I could work around this. I didn't have as much issue with it before with a day job. But when I prep canvases I put in 4-8 hr days in the studio, so theoretically I could work on other paintings simultaneously. Obstacles to that are:

1. With all my prepped canvases in my studio space leaning against walls and furniture, there is no room left to just paint.
2. I would need canvases that are already ready to work on-- and I run short on these quickly.
3. Sometimes I have to bribe myself to use smelly oil ground which means I put in 4-6 hours on a coat and then go to the movies as a reward.

But I have accepted that I am just prepping paintings at this point and I am rolling with it. Currently I am waiting for my last coat the dry on my canvases. I was only able to prep 5 to start with, due to space limitations. I am switching to another studio space in the same building that will help mildly with this issue, and I am glad I have 2 easels now so I can keep multiple projects going to keep up with my energy.

I won't be able to paint on these canvases until a week from tomorrow, allowing for the recommended drying time of the ground. So in the meantime I am planning my giant paintings. I took a day off from the studio on Monday and went to the Titian/Tintoretto/Veronese Venice exhibit at the MFA and I was BLOWN AWAY. I will definitely going back a couple times to fully absorb it. But I took many ideas from that show and I am busily incorporating it into my next series. I sketch all my paintings in photoshop to start with-- using photos and the brush tool (with my new Wacom Tablet.) Lately my photoshop sketches have gotten more complex-- probably compositing 10-30 images per piece. I have been taking most of my own photos and since I have more free time-- I have been traveling around the Boston area to take pictures of elements I need.

Also in the meantime, I have started some small portraits. They are experimental and I don't know how they will turn out. I am playing with multiple angles and making a double-exposure or look of movement.



Also I am trying to work on my portrait painting skills. I am good at painting figures-- but when it comes to portraits I think I have actually regressed and now I am not as good at capturing the essence of a face. It will look like a face-- just not the one I am working from. Since it is the face that initially compelled me to draw-- I am returning to that. I am also better at drawing than painting (when it comes to portraiture) so I want to work on my technique and get more comfortable. I am thinking I should do some quick sketches (on canvas board or something cheap and quick) to help me loosen up and not be so precious and stiff.



These are images of portraits taht are in progress. This is just the initial pass with the basic composition and outline of the image. After this I will start filling in the form and the color and hope it comes together. I've already wiped out both of these 4 times and started over.

Anyway, the whole point of all this work on canvases and portraits is that I have decided I will make this my most productive art year. I want to have a solid body of new work by December-- I'm already excited about how new surroundings and situation is giving me tons of inspiration.

Open Studio!

I'm having a modest open studio on May 2-3, 12-6pm each day. This coincides with the Somerville Open Studios (that's in Massachusetts) that are taking place. I will have some small pieces on view and for purchase. While I am not officially part of the Somerville Open Studios, if you're in the area stop on by. Email me for the specific address: info@bekkateerlink.com (you know, to keep the stalkers to a minimum.)

Clouds...

...at sunset. In Los Angeles, usually the orange in the sky was photochemical smog. And natural non-pollution clouds are rare. Here there is an endless parade of beautiful cloud formations. Just one hour of cloud watching got me these:

















They almost look like lava. The color was not photoshopped, these are all straight from my camera.

Sketching, gessoing, painting, productivity!

Having no full time job I am being too productive with art. I haven't had this luxury since 1999 when I participated in the Yale Summer Program at Norfolk. (Although I am getting up later in the day because unlike Norfolk-- I don't have a person making me pancakes for breakfast at 7am. So there is no food encouragement to wake up on time.) I've started 4 new paintings which are well underway-- but I'm waiting for them to dry a little before I continue. If I had a full time job I wouldn't notice this "waiting" between passes on paintings-- it just would happen naturally. But now, in order to keep moving forward, I find that I must always have canvas and panels ready to start on. Which means my appetite for new canvases is much larger than normal. I am starting to rethink the number or ambition of my paintings. Sometimes I get impatient and rush through prepping a painting (this makes more sense when I have limited time to work.) But I have endless hours now-- so why not find models, go to drawing workshops, take photos, drive around looking for locations? Why not make giant complex canvases full of 20 figures on horseback suspended in battle? I have the time.

Another "Shortcut"

Here is the next installment in my tiny abstract painting series. I've been playing with this idea for only a month and already I am getting restless to go back to painting people. I know when I finish this series I will do exactly that-- my goal however is to approach it differently both in the painting process and in the idea.

There are several things that I am thinking about in the overall scope of my paintings. I am not sure if I want to keep painting "surreal"-- however I don't want to paint straightforward scenes. I don't know exactly what I'm chasing after but I know that I want to move away from anything remotely pop surrealist and hope that people will also stop asking me if I like Dali. (I hate Dali. Hate hate hate.) These aren't the reasons for changing things up-- but after working in Advertising Illustration for years and now being unemployed (due to the recent crash of the ad industry) I am getting perspective and realizing that advertising & illustration had a pretty large influence on my work. But I want to deconstruct that somehow.

Secondly, I want to challenge myself with the paint itself. With color choices, application, tools & marks. I want to play with peripheral vision, shifting light, movement, unity of time and place. Some of these things are ideas I've touched on before or have been inspired by art I have seen.

One of the most inspiring pieces of art I saw recently was the Scenes from the Tale of Genji Screen (1677) at the Gardner Museum in the Journeys East exhibition (until May 31.) There is no good image of the screen online and photography was not allowed in the museum so I don't have one to share. (You can google it and get similar Tale of Genji images.) But the screen had a series of buildings with gold clouds separating them. And you could see what was happening inside the buildings from almost an omniscient point of view. What I was drawn to was the lack of unity of time & place-- and the ellipsis of space.

Another inspiration is from a (Early Christian?) painting that illustrated a bible story and had the main figure repeated along a path to show a journey. (This is another image I've never been able to find because I saw it so long ago and forgot the details.) But this is another idea I've had in the back of my head for a while and have wanted to play with.

As for painting inspiration-- I have been making a list of some contemporary painters who's work I love (and am very jealous of.) The list so far:

Frank Ryan (you can view some of his work here and here) The pieces I loved most cannot be found online (why don't great artists these days have websites?!) but were shown at the Walter Maciel Gallery. What I liked most was the application of paint and how one could see how the painting evolved as he worked it. There would be figures that were added or taken out-- and it was imperfectly done so it had feeling of transience. The lack of preciseness was brilliant-- and it made me realize that I have a tendency to get too exact when I paint. Often the early stages of a painting are the best and I'm trying to learn when to stop touching things that already work. More importantly-- I'm trying to get the right mix of precision and looseness (such as a face being precise and the body/background being loose so it lends a sort of "focus" to the piece instead of an all-over equal focus that I do with my recent paintings.

Kent Williams (view his work here and more deliciousness here)is a master of directing focus in his portraits. I love the messy loose sections mixed with the glowing flesh of figures and commanding faces. I love the feeling of the paint in his work too and how it seems to be in motion. I would like to show more of my own hand in my paintings-- right now they feel somewhat static. But once again my work is often loose and gestural in the beginning but it gets hidden as I continue working.

Matt Bollinger (another artist with no official website but his work can be seen mainly on his blog here, you'll have to browse to find paintings) is my most recent discovery and I haven't seen his work in person-- but I know it can only be even better off the internet. What I love about his work is the color, the paint application & textures, and the compositions. I have a tendency to be too literal when it comes to painting figures and so when I see work like his I am immediately drawn to it because it has much more atmosphere than painting the same old sky is blue/trees are green/skin is pink way. Seeing work like his makes me confident that messing around with abstract pieces for a little while will be good for me and will get me out of my old color routine. Not that my color was bad before-- but for me it was becoming like a recipe I know by heart.

Also Frank Ryan and Matt Bollinger both paint from video which has been intriguing me as well (being a filmmaker myself.) This is something I will definitely play with since I love the element of time that a still photo does not have.